The Creator Spotlight Podcast

Creator Spotlight
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The Creator Spotlight Podcast

Behind-the-scenes stories from across the creator economy. This podcast is part of our newsletter, Creator Spotlight. Every week, as part of the process of writing our newsletter, we spend an hour in conversation with a notable creator. Only a few parts of that conversation can make it into the newsletter — now you can listen in for every little story and piece of advice. Hosted by Francis Zierer (Twitter and LinkedIn). Uploaded ever Friday morning.

  1. Ep. 36: Making big bucks with a small audience ft. Lex Roman

    23 HR. AGO

    Ep. 36: Making big bucks with a small audience ft. Lex Roman

    This week Francis is joined by creative entrepreneur, Lex Roman. Lex is a freelance growth marketer with two newsletters, Journalists Pay Themselves and Revenue Rulebreaker. Journalists Pay Themselves: https://journalistspaythemselves.com/ Lex's Website: https://lexroman.com/ 00:00 The Multi-Hyphenate Journey of Lex Roman 04:00 Defining Creators and Creative Entrepreneurs 10:53 Monetization Strategies for Creators 15:43 The Boutique Creator Model 19:00 Revenue Streams and Success in the Creator Economy 23:33 The Role of Journalists in the Creator Economy 26:22 Virtual Events and Controversial Takes 33:27 Understanding Subscription Fatigue 40:44 The Overvaluation of Social Media for Growth 45:19 The Future of Internet Columnists

    52 min
  2. Ep. 35: Being an idiot will make you a better writer ft. Alex Dobrenko

    NOV 14

    Ep. 35: Being an idiot will make you a better writer ft. Alex Dobrenko

    This week Francis is joined by Alex Dobrenko, a comedian and writer of the newsletter Both Are True. Both Are True: https://botharetrue.substack.com Alex's Twitter/X: https://x.com/dobrenkz 00:00 Intro 01:23 The Journey to Comedy and Writing 08:20 Writing Style and Honesty 15:02 The Role of Improv Comedy in Creativity 22:07 The Growth of an Audience 30:26 Professionalization of Content Creation and "Selling Out" 38:57 Whoa: Exploring Deeper Conversations through Interviews 45:37 Navigating the Solitary Nature of Creation 49:15 The Evolution of Social Media Engagement

    1 hr
  3. Ep. 34: Behaving Badly and Going Viral ft. Penn Weinberger

    NOV 7

    Ep. 34: Behaving Badly and Going Viral ft. Penn Weinberger

    This week Francis is joined by Penn Weinberger, founder and head of the agency Bad Behavior. Bad Behavior works with creators to produce original short-form shows for brands; they’ve worked with clients like Lyft, Columbia Records, Cash App, and Stanley. Bad Behavior: https://www.bad-behavior.com/ 00:00 Introducing Penn and Bad Behavior 01:42 Working with Creators vs. Influencers 05:00 The Impact of Viral Marketing 07:14 Empowering Creators 09:35 Upsetting the Traditional Advertising Model 13:42 Starting and Then Diversifying the Agency 17:12 The Blur Between Creator and Celebrity 22:22 The Revenue 26:07 The Increase in Management Amongst Creators 30:06 Rules for Building a Creator-Led Show 32:47 Finding Brands as a Creator 36:35 Red Flags for Brands and Creators 41:06 Unpredictable Virality

    45 min
  4. Ep. 33: Discovering an Untapped Market Worth $30k a Month ft. Rameel Sheikh

    OCT 31

    Ep. 33: Discovering an Untapped Market Worth $30k a Month ft. Rameel Sheikh

    This week Francis is joined by Rameel Sheikh, founder and writer of The Bottleneck which, in his words, is the only weekly newsletter offering stories, frameworks, and tactics to sharpen how you execute. thebottleneck.io 00:00 Introducing Rameel Sheikh and The Bottleneck 01:09 Building a Strong Audience Relationship 03:07 Lessons Learnt from the Startup World 07:18 The Decision to Start a Newsletter 13:31 The Structure of the Newsletter 17:00 Experimenting with Different Writing Styles 20:08 How the Newsletter Generates $30k a Month 26:00 Building an Audience from Scratch to 28k Subscribers 32:30 Are Creators Also Founders? 37:27 Building a Team as a Founder 40:57 The Many Failed Experiments that Led to The Bottleneck 44:27 Building a High Value Community 49:52 Future Dreams or Goals of The Bottleneck

    58 min
  5. Ep. 32: The YouTube space race ft. Swapna Krishna

    OCT 24

    Ep. 32: The YouTube space race ft. Swapna Krishna

    Today’s guest is Swapna Krishna, creator of Ad Astra, a YouTube channel and beehiiv newsletter about space. She’s a professional writer with over a decade of experience doing everything from journalism to content marketing to authoring a book. She’s been all-in on Ad Astra, her first venture as an independent creator since the start of 2024. 00:00 Intro 01:20 The Journey of Writing and Publishing a Book 04:35 Transitioning to Video Content Creation 07:22 Developing Presentation Skills Through Podcasting 12:42 Defining the Creator and Journalist Identity 18:31 Swapna's Journey Through the Content Creation World 22:22 The Differences in Solo Creating and Working in a Team 30:25 All of Swapna's Projects 31:50 Production Process: From Idea to Execution 41:58 The Relationships with Swapna's Different Audiences 48:34 Space-X's Media Dominance 50:40 The Monetization 54:25 Defining Goals and Editorial Mandate

    1h 4m
  6. Ep. 31: 1 million YouTube subscribers (twice) ft. Alex Emery

    OCT 17

    Ep. 31: 1 million YouTube subscribers (twice) ft. Alex Emery

    Today’s guest is Alex Emery, a creative director and content strategist who spent the first 8 years of his career at Sky Sports before leaving 2 years ago to work with creators. His first client was John Nellis, a YouTuber with 5,000 followers at the time — they’ve since increased that number to 1.74 million and counting, and Alex is working with John full-time. 00:00 Intro 01:10 Getting into the world of football content 04:43 Tripling the growth of Sky Sports YouTube channel 07:27 The partnership with John 13:52 Combining the business and creative mind 16:24 How the business operates 18:41 How big is the team? 20:05 Producing content from in-front the camera 24:49 Why John Nellis is the best to work with 29:50 Growing and reinvesting into the business 35:10 The importance of the title and thumbnail 37:34 The myth behind "retention editing” 40:46 How the channel is monetized 44:27 Why you should delete your old videos 46:09 How much money is the channel making? 48:23 The work/life balance of a content creator 51:54 The goal for the channel 55:52 YouTube vs TV

    1 hr
  7. Ep. 30: Lifestyle over empire ft. Caitlin Dewey

    OCT 10

    Ep. 30: Lifestyle over empire ft. Caitlin Dewey

    Today’s guest is Caitlin Dewey, creator if Links I Would Gchat You If We Were Friends, a newsletter she started nearly 11 years ago, when she was the social media reporter for the Washington Post. She wrote it for 2 years, taking a 4-year break before bringing it back in 2020; earlier this year, she decided to go all-in and make it her main gig. We spoke about the particular challenges of being a creator-journalist, how to write an actually good links aggregation newsletter, and choosing to build a lifestyle business instead of a media empire. 00:00 Introducing Caitlin Dewey 03:27 The Origins of the Newsletter 06:16 Taking a Break and the Pressure of a Rebrand 13:36 Building a Community With Readers 17:53 Building a Good Salary From Subscriptions 19:49 The Definition of Creators vs. Journalists 27:42 Bring Back Comfortable Middle Class Lifestyles 32:59 Collaboration in the Newsletter Community 37:37 The Painful Art of Content Planning 43:21 Substack's Shift in Business Model 50:13 The Craft of an Aggregation Newsletter 53:19 Fake News Is Now Just News

    58 min
  8. Ep. 29: "Posting content on the internet changed my life" ft. Tommy Clark

    SEP 26

    Ep. 29: "Posting content on the internet changed my life" ft. Tommy Clark

    Today’s guest is Tommy Clark, creator of the Social Files newsletter, founder of Compound Content Studio, and a B2B social media expert. He started making content for his nutrition coaching business while still a college student, in 2018 — he never set out to build a career in content. Five years later, he has an agency on track to make over $1 million this year. 00:00 Intro 01:20 Accidentally starting a marketing agency 03:30 Building a team and hiring for content creation 06:17 Growing the newsletter Social Files 13:04 The devolution of Twitter - LinkedIn #1 now? 15:36 How to craft the perfect viral post 20:23 The relationship between the business and personal brand 23:41 Monetizing a creator led business 27:21 What makes someone good/bad at marketing? 29:27 Starting with content creation and rules for posting 39:19 Finding content ideas for viral posts 41:10 Uploading to YouTube but not being a YouTuber 43:55 How you can grow your online brand Intro music produced by J. and Doug Organ

    48 min
See All (36)

5
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

Behind-the-scenes stories from across the creator economy. This podcast is part of our newsletter, Creator Spotlight. Every week, as part of the process of writing our newsletter, we spend an hour in conversation with a notable creator. Only a few parts of that conversation can make it into the newsletter — now you can listen in for every little story and piece of advice. Hosted by Francis Zierer (Twitter and LinkedIn). Uploaded ever Friday morning.

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